A Blogger’s Guide To A Stress-Free Holiday*

As you may or may not know, I came back from a holiday in Corsica not so long ago. The break was much needed and felt super good. Why, you may ask? Well, for starter, because I was exhausted and clearly needed a break. Second, because it was as stress-free as it could get. Like literally. And finally, the reason why it was so relaxing, is because… it was technology, internet and social media free.

Well, apart for the occasional Instagram stories, I must admit. Because how could I make you jealous of my holiday otherwise? Just kidding.

You may wonder how I did that. As a blogger, we live online. Our lives are on the internet and must be documented daily for our audience to remain captivated. Which means that we never truly get to holiday. We are basically always working. True that we cannot 100% completely log out because, well, our lifestyle is our job, but I have cracked a few ways to make your holiday as stress-free as possible. For a blogger point of view I mean.

A blogger’s guide to a stress-free holiday

1. Plan in advance

As a fashion blogger, I shot content twice a month, three to four outfits each time. It gives me enough content to write two weeks worth of blog posts. From there, I could plan my week away and start writing. As someone who leaves many things to the last minute, it is quite a lot of work so it was all down to organization. Start planning early. Indeed, you know when you’ll be away so you can anticipate how much content you’ll need. I was away from Saturday to the next Sunday. Posting each Wednesday and Sunday, I knew I needed three blog posts scheduled. Having the photos ready, I just had to write the blog posts. Thus, I had content being published automatically while I was away.

2. Schedule social media

Scheduling is something all bloggers do on a daily basis. However, having the schedule a week worth of social media is a lot of work. Facebook has a scheduling option so no problem here. Instagram scheduling comes with a price so you can not to post, pay for an app or post daily (but is it truly a holiday then?). Twitter and Pinterest are more work. I use Tailwind for Pinterest, which is fully automated so you’ve got nothing to do, although the app is not free. For Twitter, I use Tweetdeck when I have many days to schedule. 10 tweets a day for 9 days. Quite a lot of work indeed so I staggered the scheduling over a few days. When I was away, I had nothing to do and my social media were all being updated with new posts. Automation, you Bae!

3. Set up your Out-of-office

Maybe it is just me, but when I receive an email, I feel like I HAVE to answer it. As a matter of fact, it does not matter if I am on the weekend, at work or on holiday. I answer. It is something I need to stop doing. Thus, now, I don’t even open iMail when I am on my laptop at the weekend. If I don’t see the little red dot, I won’t feel tempted. The same goes on holiday. Set up your OOO email so that people know you are away and won’t answer until they are back. No guilt over not being quick at emailing back. For social media, set up the “night” mode on Twitter and disable notifications on others so that you are not inundated with notifications that you will want to check.

4. Let everyone know

How flickery is Instagram. You don’t post for a few days and hop! you lose dozens of followers. So what will happen when you are away. Well, you can’t prevent the follow/unfollow game or people unfollowing you but you can still let them know you won’t be posting for some time – on your feed or on your Instagram stories. I even went further and told everyone – work colleague, bloggers and friends – that I wanted to stay away from my phone while in Corsica so it’d be amazing if people refrained from texting. Off the grid for a week, barely any texts and my entire focus on my boyfriend, family and the fun!

5. Leave your laptop at home

Last but not least. I left my laptop at home. We all know how it is. You take your laptop with you “just in case” and end up spending a lot of time on it. While being on holiday. No laptop, no temptation. And if you really need to check something, you have your smartphone, which has internet. So see, you’re never far from civilization no matter where you are. Even the tiniest village lost in the Corsican mountain had 4G – roaming is free in the EU remember (although not for long for UK residents after Brexit so make the most of it now). Not having my laptop also forced me to do other things – reading, crosswords, sudoku, board games.

Are you planning a holiday soon? How do you organize yourself with your blog when you are away? Any tips you want to share with us? Are these any useful to you? How do you stress-free holiday? Also, how pretty is this sunflower playsuit from Rubino Roo?

Thanks a lot for stopping by. Hope you liked this post!

See you soon,
Love,
Corinne

*The playsuit featured in the photos has been gifted to me but all opinions remain my own.

34 Comments

I agree the influencer career route requires to work non-stop b/c like you said, the lifestyle is the job. It’s nice to breakaway from the digital world and relax in nature. I hope your trip is going well for you because it sounds worth it ????

I wonder why I’m still lazy to consider scheduling even though going manual on social media is so hectic! Well, guess it’s time. Anyway, you are looking so great. That play suit eludes vacation moods lol!

I try to write enough ahead of time, so if I get busy with the kids, or church things, or whatever I don’t have to stress about having posts to publish. I do need to work on scheduling my social media.

I am loving your look! This is also a graT post, I too am not of them people that when I get an email I have to reply but slowly but surely I’m learning to step away from my work phone when it’s my day off, so I do need to start learning when I’m on holiday too with blogging stuff!

This is such a great post. I totally agree that living this online life makes it almost impossible to not ‘work’ while you’re away. You definitely need to plan and schedule content in advance but I’m not sure if I could bring myself to leave my laptop at home!! x

These tips are so helpful! I actually didn’t realise how much I would use my phone for blogging purposes while I was away! It’s so addictive, I really like the idea of letting social media know your away and won’t be too active! Great post also love that playsuit! Xx

I love your outfit! I don’t think I’ve ever taken my laptop on holiday – I used to leave my phone at home too! I’m fairly good at scheduling tweets for when I’m away, but useless at scheduling blog posts!
Hels xxhttp://www.thehelsproject.com

This post made me smile! In one way I adore going on holiday but in other ways, I slightly dread it because of all the post scheduling and planning beforehand. Not just for my blog and socials, I run social media for three other clients as well, haha. The two weeks before I go away anywhere are a nightmare! But my lifesaver is Buffer (paid option), I love this app, it’s well worth the money as it handles Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest (not that I use it for Pinterest but that’s a whole other story…). You’re absolutely right about needing time off grid though, and not answering emails – something I really need to try and do next time we go away 🙂 xx

That playsuit is so cute! I completely agree that working online makes it so hard to not work when you’re away as you’ve still got your phone with you! Great tips about having a more stress free holiday, especially the scheduling content ones. I’m so bad at scheduling but when I do it, it’s so much easier than worrying about how I’ve forgotten. Great post x

This post has come at a perfect time for me as I go away in just over a week. Really looking forward to having time to de-stress, but finding it hard to balance with my blog. will be following your tips in this post. Thanks for the advice 😀

This is such a great post and I’m awful for not relaxing on holiday because I’m trying to get loads of photos for the blog in! when we went to Mallorca I even took my laptop with me to work on! I’m glad you had a great time!

These tips are great! I schedualed posts ahead of time while my family was visiting over the summer so that I wouldn’t feel pressured to be writing while spending time with people I rarely get to see and while it was a lot of work before hand it definitely made the visit nicer! I probably should have pre schedualed more of my social stuff though so that’s some tips I will keep in mind for the future!

These are fabulous suggestions Corinne! It sounds like you had a wonderful holiday and I love that you spent more time reading and enjoying games. It sounds super relaxing and nice to have a social media break as blogging can get overwhelming at times. Great post, thank you for sharing <3 xx

I recently went on a holiday but have a full-time job in addition to my blog. I had full intentions to work on my blog while on vacation. However, the wi-fi didn’t want my phone and laptop to communicate so…my blog went on vacation. It was quite nice.

We share the same thoughts about e-mail. I just can’t leave it alone when there’s notif that says I got an e-mail. It’s either I reply right away or put in trash. I’m neurotic that way. My inbox has to be empty or else I feel like I have an unfinished business.

I do exactly this when I am planning a stress free holiday. Planning ahead definitely helps. Scheduling your social media is definitely a must. What helps me even better is to delegate when and if I can afford it.

Taking some time off to recharge and gather inspiration is so needed. Blogging is more than a full time job, it’s a way of living. I loved the tip of leaving the laptop at home. I need to put this into practice.

I love these tips! Will definitely be applying them next time in going on a holiday! I am just like you in that I need to reply to the email as soon as I get it which definitely takes away from having a ‘stress-free’ holiday!
Thanks for sharing! xx

During my holidays, I never bring my laptop with me only my cameras and phones for documentation. Then a good book to keep me company. I want to enjoy the holidays with family and my boyfriend, and have quality time.